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Friday news, part two:

Not For Broadcast mixes '80s newsroom satire with Papers, Please
https://www.pcgamer.com/not-for-broadcast-mixes-80s-newsroom-satire-with-papers-please/
The best bit of a live news broadcast is when it all goes wrong. Someone swears on TV, a news anchor doesn't realise they're back on air, a rowdy member of the public starts waving like a goon in the background of a shot. Those moments give us a rough idea of how close to disaster live broadcasts are at all times, but Not For Broadcast gives you the whole picture as it puts all the pressure on you to hold a series of live shows together.

Play four games of Tetris at once in this puzzler with a very long name
https://www.pcgamer.com/play-four-games-of-tetris-at-once-in-this-puzzler-with-a-very-long-name/
A new puzzle game from Stephen Lavelle, aka Increpare, is cause to drop what you're doing and try it out. He made Stephen's Sausage Roll and English Country Tune, after all. Now he's released Schwerkraftprojektionsgerät, and it's been filling any spare minutes I have.

Apex Legends Season 4 launch trailer reveals the truth behind Revenant
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-season-4-launch-trailer-reveals-the-truth-behind-revenant/
Apex Legends is a class-based battle royale that's fast, fluid, and—no surprise—not exactly heavy on dialog and plot. But Electronic Arts has been leaning pretty heavily into the narrative in the lead up to the start of season 4, Assimilation: It introduced a new character named Forge, then murdered him in a story trailer with a deathbot that's been rumored since late last year. All very strange.

Overwatch is getting hero bans, but Blizzard will pick them, not you
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-is-getting-hero-bans-but-blizzard-will-pick-them-not-you/
Bans in games like Rainbow Six Siege and Heroes of the Storm enable players or teams to exclude characters at the start of matches, preventing opponents from selecting ones who dominate specific maps or the overall meta. Overwatch fans have been calling for a similar system in their game of choice for some time now, but so far Blizzard has opted against doing so.

Dota Underlords is leaving Early Access on February 25
https://www.pcgamer.com/dota-underlords-is-leaving-early-access-in-february/
This week's Dota Underlords update was accompanied by the news that it's almost broken free of Early Access and will soon hit 1.0. It launched on Steam back in June, and in February the first season will officially kick off.
Update, January 30: Valve has confirmed that Dota Underlords will launch into 1.0 on February 25. "This release will be the beginning of Dota Underlords Season 1, and will come with new content, more rewards, and new alliances," the update confirmed.

Destiny 2's 'Empyrean Foundation' event will almost certainly lead to the return of Trials
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2s-empyrean-foundation-event-will-almost-certainly-lead-to-the-return-of-trials/
Yesterday, we reported that dataminers had dug up information on the next season of Destiny 2, purportedly called Season of the Worthy, which—if the dataminers are correct—will begin on March 9, and will see the return of the Trials of Osiris PvP mode. The process would begin with the launch of an Empyrean Foundation event, which would kick off with an activity called "Worthy" that would have players working to support the Restoration effort "and rekindle the Lighthouse to usher in a new age of Guardians."
And guess what's happening next week? As relayed in today's This Week at Bungie update, "the Empyrean Foundation rebuild effort begins."

Castle Crashers devs have announced a new Alien Hominid game
https://www.pcgamer.com/castle-crashers-devs-have-announced-a-new-alien-hominid-game/
Castle Crashers studio The Behemoth has just announced its fifth game, and it's a return to the studio's roots. Alien Hominid Invasion harkens back to the ye olde Newgrounds Flash game, which originally released in (dabs brow) 2004. It has since released on a bunch of other platforms including the PS2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, iOS, GameCube... but curiously, not Steam.

Solve a robotic murder mystery in free detective game Lockheart Indigo
https://www.pcgamer.com/solve-a-robotic-murder-mystery-in-free-detective-game-lockheart-indigo/
There's been a murder in a grand old mansion. You, a private detective named Beatris, have arrived to investigate, and the process of doing that is more involved than you might expect.
Lockheart Indigo feels like a combat-less JRPG. In place of turn-based battles, you encounter combat-like interrogations, where you throw facts at, and use special abilities on, potential suspects. The character art of these suspects is expressive, full of character, although it's a bit of a shame that so much of the environmental art is monochrome.

WW2 shooter Days of War finally launches after three years in Early Access
https://www.pcgamer.com/ww2-shooter-day-of-war-finally-launches-after-three-years-in-early-access/
Day of Defeat: Source is Valve's long-forgotten child, left in a cupboard while its much more popular sibling Counter-Strike gets all the love. Fortunately, Days of War, a game heavily inspired by Day of Defeat, has finally launched after over three years in early access.

Wizards of the Coast announces 'story driven' RPG studio led by ex Bioware vets
https://www.pcgamer.com/wizards-of-the-coast-announces-story-driven-rpg-studio-led-by-ex-bioware-vets/
Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast has announced it is launching a new game studio who will be focusing on story-driven RPGs. It's also got some pretty hefty pedigree heading it up.

An indie 'demo disc' of PS1-inspired horror games is launching on PC next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-indie-demo-disc-of-ps1-inspired-horror-games-is-launching-on-pc-next-week/
Remember those PlayStation demo discs that were included with the magazines? Remember how you would play those demos ad-nauseum instead of buying and playing the full games they were advertising? Wish they were a little bit more horrifying?
Apparently, so did a load of indie developers, as they've teamed up to release a fake demo disc of PS1-inspired horror games.

And now it's time to check the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

+Steam

End of the news. Until the next edition, have a happy and gaming weekend.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

Around the Network
JEMC said:

**commercial music sounds**

Do you game on two or even three monitors (up to 27")?

Do bezels bother you?

Do you happen to have 110 USD laying around?

If you said yes to all three questions... congratulations! Asus has something for you!

Nice ad JEMC, might even try get them for work B-)



@Twitter | Switch | Steam

You say tomato, I say tomato 

"¡Viva la Ñ!"

TomaTito said:
JEMC said:

**commercial music sounds**

Do you game on two or even three monitors (up to 27")?

Do bezels bother you?

Do you happen to have 110 USD laying around?

If you said yes to all three questions... congratulations! Asus has something for you!

Nice ad JEMC, might even try get them for work B-)

They aren't good for work because the image gets distorted to hide the bezel and that would make text or numbers hard if not outright impossible to read. In games there are no such problems.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

The Monday news:

SALES & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

  1. Temtem
  2. Grand Theft Auto V
  3. Red Dead Redemption 2
  4. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
  5. Red Dead Redemption 2
  6. MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD
  7. Human: Fall Flat
  8. PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
  9. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sold beyond projections while EA made almost 3 billion from MTX
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-sold-beyond-projections-while-ea-made-almost-3-billion-from-mtx/
Back in 2010 Electronic Arts’ chief Frank Gibeau said that single-player games are finished. Evidently they are not, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order a single-player title, has sold beyond expectations.
EA was modeling sales of six to eight million copies and now they are expecting sales to reach ten million during the current fiscal year ending on March 31st. Not bad for a single-player game, especially one with flaws.
In other news EA made a total of 993 million dollars from live services during the quarter ended December 31st and 2.835 billion from microtransactions for the twelve months as a whole. Most of the revenue comes from the Ultimate Team models for EA’s sports games such as FIFA, Madden and NHL.

The Sims 4 hits 20 million players, with online play hinted for a next-gen game
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-sims-4-hits-20-million-players-with-online-play-hinted-for-a-next-gen-game/
The Sims may be hitting 20 years old within the next week, but Maxis's series is showing no signs of slowing down, according to EA's most recent earnings report.
In the document, it was announced that The Sims 4, the latest entry released in 2014, has hit a rather healthy 20 million lifetime players across all platforms. While this doesn't necessarily add up to total sales, as the game is included in EA's Origin Access subscription service on PC and EA Access on consoles, it still shows the staying power of the game.

Classic strategy RPG The Lords of Midnight is free on GOG
https://www.pcgamer.com/classic-strategy-rpg-the-lords-of-midnight-is-free-on-gog/
While GOG dropped the Good Old Games moniker a long time ago, it's still very much in the business of game preservation, hence why you can find the likes of Mike Singleton's 1984 classic, The Lords of Midnight. It's a piece of videogame history which, along with its sequel, you can now grab for free.
GOG added The Lords of Midnight to its catalogue back in 2013, so maybe you've already picked it up, but if not you can snatch both of them up right now without spending a penny.
>> And while you're there to check them out, and maybe adding them to your collection, you can also take a look at the two sales currently in place:

Steam has two new daily deals:

On the Humble Store there are two new flash deals:

At Fanatical there are four new deals:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam just broke its record player count by nearly 300k
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-just-broke-its-record-player-count-by-nearly-300k/
Steam's concurrent user count passed 18.8 million earlier today, peaking at 18,801,944 according to tracker SteamDB. The previous record was 18.5 million just about two years ago on January 6, 2018. As noted by SteamDB, this concurrent user record did not coincide with a record number of players in game, with only 5.8 million today against 7 million two years ago, about 1.2 million fewer. The previous record was boosted by the huge number of players in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. It's not known what caused the current peak, though the time of the peak coincides with peak playtimes for all of Steam's top games.

MODS/EMULATORS

God of War 3, Sly 4, MotorStorm Apocalypse and more run better on the latest version of RPCS3
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/god-of-war-3-sly-4-motorstorm-apocalypse-and-more-run-better-on-the-latest-version-of-rpcs3/
The team behind the best Playstation 3 emulator, RPCS3, has released a brand new video for it. This latest video highlight some of the improvements that RPCS3’s January 2020 build features. Furthermore, the team claimed that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is very close to being fully playable.
Thanks to kd-11, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty and Tools of Destruction saw a significant performance improvement during January, and now properly work with resolution scaling.
Moreover, Eladash fixed an old regression causing some pixels to be rendered out in the incorrect color when using the SPU LLVM or Interpreter Decoders. This issue was present in God of War III, Sly 4, MotorStorm Apocalypse, House of the Dead: Overkill, and more.

The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition V4.77 released, features bug fixes and new ingredient lock
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-3-enhanced-edition-v4-77-released-brings-bug-fixes-and-new-ingredient-lock/
The Dedicated W3EE Mod Team has released a brand new version of The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition. Version 4.77 adds a new “normal” ingredient lock for ingredients without secondaries. Moreover, it fixes various bugs and issues.
The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition is a complete and comprehensive rework of the game. This mod aims to offer a much higher quality experience than the original game ever could. Its first version came out in February 2019 and since then, the modder has been constantly improving it.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

Half-Life Source: Project Extend Mod aims to add maps cut from the alpha build, new screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/half-life-source-project-extend-mod-aims-to-add-maps-cut-from-the-alpha-build-new-screenshots/
illegal_Chumtoad is currently working on a new mod for Valve’s classic first-person shooter. Half-Life Source: Project Extend aims to expand Half-Life’s gameplay and add maps that were cut from its alpha build. And yesterday, the modder released some new screenshots from it.

This 4.5GB HD Texture Pack for Arx Fatalis overhauls all textures via AI Neural Networks
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/this-4-5gb-hd-texture-pack-for-arx-fatalis-overhauls-all-textures-via-ai-neural-networks/
Ridiculous Death has released a 4.5GB HD Texture Pack for Arkane Studios’ Arx Fatalis. This pack aims to overhaul all of the game’s textures via AI neural networks methods. This basically means that all of the improved textures have a similar art style to the vanilla ones.
The modder has upscaled all of the textures to 16x resolution and then downscaled to 50%.
Do note that in order to use this HD Texture Pack, you’ll need Arx Libertatis. According to Ridiculous Death, this pack works perfectly with the GOG version of the game. Arx Fatalis is also available on Steam, though we don’t know whether this version is compatible with it.
>> You can get the mod from Nexus Mods.

You can now play as Beerus and Whis in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Super Sonic mod coming soon
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/you-can-now-play-as-beerus-and-whis-in-dragon-ball-z-kakarot-super-sonic-mod-coming-soon/
Modder Beatz has released a debug menu for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, via which PC gamers can play as Beerus and Whis from Dragon Ball Super. From the looks of it, these two characters will be coming as a DLC for the game, however, PC gamers can already play with them.
According to the modder, these characters are not complete yet. Still, it appears that they have proper animations, as well as some moves.
In addition, Beatz discovered a 3D model for Super Saiyan Vegeta Blue. Contrary to Beerus and Whis, though, Super Saiyan Vegeta Blue does not appear to be playable yet.
>> You can get the debug menu mod from Nexus Mods.

A modder is absolutely transforming Dark Souls 2 with lighting improvements
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-modder-is-absolutely-transforming-dark-souls-2-with-lighting-improvements/
Flames of Old is an upcoming graphics mod for Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin that reworks and overhauls the game’s look, profoundly changing the game in the process. Modder Stayd is changing lighting, shaders, and map design, and the result is a striking upgrade to the game’s visuals. Stayd is inspired by the pre-release renders for the game, and wants to bring the graphics “on-par with what was shown pre-release.” They’ve showed off some pretty impressive screenshots on Twitter. Much of the lighting work changes how the game looks fundamentally, lessening the very flat tones of many environments. There are also small tweaks, like removing trees from the upper left, revealing the Shrine of Winter to add more sense of scale to the area.

GAMING NEWS

Rumor: Inside the world of Elden Ring; dynamic weather, upgraded engine and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rumor-inside-the-world-of-elden-ring/
A Resetara user have made a long post regarding the upcoming FromSoftware title Elden Ring. Apparently the user have made similar posts in the past, including information about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which turned out to be true. In his post he talks mainly about the open-world of Elden Ring and how different is from any other open-world title.

Brand new screenshots released for Fast & Furious Crossroads
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/brand-new-screenshots-released-for-fast-furious-crossroads/
Bandai Namco has been constantly sharing new screenshots for Slightly Mad Studios’ Fast & Furious Crossroads. Therefore, today we are bringing you four brand new screenshots for it. Similarly to our previous articles, these screenshots showcase some of the cars that players will find in the game.

Formula Retro Racing is a retro racing game that looks similar to SEGA’s Virtua Racing
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/formula-retro-racing-is-a-retro-racing-game-that-looks-similar-to-segas-virtua-racing/
SEGA arcade racing fans, rejoice. Repixel8 is currently working on a lowpoly retro arcade racing game, Formula Retro Racing. This indie racer looks very similar to SEGA’s Virtua Racing, and you can find its first gameplay footage below.

New update for Bright Memory adds support for DLSS and Ray Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-update-for-bright-memory-adds-support-for-dlss-and-ray-tracing/
Back in December 2019, we shared a video for Bright Memory: Infinite, showcasing its new Ray Tracing effects. And a few days ago, FYQD Personal Studio released a patch for the Early Access version of Bright Memory that adds support for these effects.

Bioware veterans join a newly formed studio focused on story-driven RPGs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bioware-veterans-join-a-newly-formed-studio-focused-on-story-driven-rpgs/
Archetype Entertainment is a newly formed studio by publisher Wizards of the Coast, who are well known for games such as Magic and Dungeons & Dragons. The new studio will focus on story-driven role-playing games.

CD Projekt RED on Cyberpunk 2077 VR: “Some things would work but it’s not really viable yet.”
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cd-projekt-red-on-cyberpunk-2077-vr-some-things-would-work-but-its-not-really-viable-yet/
In an interview with OnMSFT, CD Projekt RED’s John Mamais talked a bit about Cyberpunk 2077 VR. According to Mamais, CD Projekt RED experimented with a VR version of its upcoming RPG. And although the team has VR dev kits, it decided to pass on it.

Deck13 will publish the SNES-style JRPG, Chained Echoes, on the PC in 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/deck13-will-publish-the-snes-style-jrpg-chained-echoes-on-the-pc-in-2021/
Deck13 has announced a publishing deal for Chained Echoes. Chained Echoes is a 16-bit SNES style RPG from Matthias Linda that looks absolutely lovely. Deck13 aims to release the game on the PC at the end of 2021.

Twin Soul is a photorealistic puzzle horror game, and you can download a demo to play right now
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/twin-soul-is-a-photorealistic-puzzle-horror-game-and-you-can-download-a-demo-to-play/
White Noise Team is currently working on a photorealistic puzzle horror game for the PC, called Twin Soul. The game takes place in an distant and desolate town somewhere in Eastern Europe, and there is a demo that you can download right now.

The composers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey & Horizon Zero Dawn will score the music of the next Batman game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-composers-of-assassins-creed-odyssey-horizon-zero-dawn-will-score-the-music-of-the-next-batman-game/
Batman fans, we’ve got some good and some bad news for you today. The good news is that we now know the team that will be composing the music for this new Batman game. The bad news is that Warner Bros still hasn’t officially announced the game.

Best selling PC game Myst couldn’t run on CD-ROM
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/best-selling-pc-game-myst-couldnt-run-on-cd-rom/
Myst is one of the best-selling PC games of all time developed by Cyan Wordls. Myst is a graphic adventure puzzle game designed by Robyn and Rand Miller. The game was first released for the Macintosh platform back in 1993. Myst was the best-selling PC game for a while, until The Sims surpassed its sales in 2002.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

Monday news, part two:

Lair of the Clockwork God mixes platforming with a point-and-click adventure in February
https://www.pcgamer.com/lair-of-the-clockwork-god-mixes-platforming-with-a-point-and-click-adventure-in-february/
Size Five Games' Lair of the Clockwork God, the long-awaited follow up to indie point-and-clicks Ben There, Dan that and Time Gentlemen, Please!, has finally got a launch date: February 21, 2020.

Taipei Game Show postponed over coronavirus emergency
https://www.pcgamer.com/taipei-game-show-postponed-over-coronavirus-emergency/
The 2020 Taipei Game Show, scheduled to take place February 6-9 (and also where we were expecting to finally get a look at From Software's upcoming Elden Ring) has been postponed until the summer due to the ongoing outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus.

80 Days studio Inkle reveals more about its next game: 'Camelot has fallen'
https://www.pcgamer.com/80-days-studio-inkle-reveals-more-about-its-next-game-camelot-has-fallen/
Earlier this month, 80 Days and Heaven's Vault studio Inkle teased its next project with a tweeted list of seven words: Swords, Anguish, Britain, Unrequited, Forests, Hope, and Revenge. I immediately suggested that it sounded like something Arthurian was in the works, as the list seemed like a good fit for both the legend of the Round Table and Inkle's particular style of illustrated storytelling.

Black Book trailer reveals a shadowy world of Slavic myths and card-based combat
https://www.pcgamer.com/black-book-trailer-reveals-a-shadowy-world-of-slavic-myths-and-card-based-combat/
Black Book is a card-based adventure-RPG about a young girl named Vasilisa, who is destined to become a witch. That sounds like a fairly straightforward setup for a tale of excitement and adventure, but Black Book is also set in the rural Russian countryside, and based on Slavic myths and folktales, and so things very quickly get darker than you might expect.

Fallout 76 Wastelanders reputation system has seven levels of trust
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-wastelanders-reputation-system-has-seven-levels-of-trust/
Bethesda has revealed some more information about the new reputation system headed to Fallout 76 when the Wastelanders expansion arrives (though we still don't know exactly when that will be). The reputation system, as outlined, doesn't feel particularly groundbreaking, but the idea of factions being introduced to Fallout 76 that aren't just robots and monsters you shoot on sight is, frankly, quite welcome at this point.

BB-8 and its evil, droid-ball twin brother are coming to Star Wars Battlefront 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/bb-8-and-its-evil-droid-ball-twin-brother-are-coming-to-star-wars-battlefront-2/
In December, Electronic Arts said that the Weeble-esque droid BB-8 and his bad-guy counterpart would, for some reason, be coming to Star Wars Battlefront 2 as a playable character. In a Community Transmission update posted today, the developers revealed more about what players can look forward to from their arrival (after a slight delay), and also that the game will be returning to the original trilogy in February with the Age of Rebellion.

Legends of Runeterra already has several card expansions 'nearly done'
https://www.pcgamer.com/legends-of-runeterra-already-has-several-card-expansions-nearly-done/
Legends of Runeterra only launched in open beta last week, but Riot Games is already working on a roadmap that will lead them to 2022, according to executive producer Jeff Jew. In our big interview, which you can read here, Jew talks a great deal about Riot's plans for the future, including new sets of cards and ways to play them.

Gorgeous sci-fi roguelike shooter Beacon has got some fresh new updates
https://www.pcgamer.com/gorgeous-sci-fi-roguelike-shooter-beacon-has-got-some-fresh-new-updates/
Crash-landed on an alien world lately? No? Well, that’s convenient, because Beacon has gotten a lot of new guns and weird body parts recently. Beacon is a gorgeous sci-fi shooter with a stylish aesthetic that can’t be beat. In the last week Beacon got its big 2.5 “Pathfinder” update, bringing the game to its Early Access content close in preparation for launch later this year. With this update, Beacon now has 100 weapons and I can assure you that they are all extremely fun and good except for the flare gun. I get killed every time I pick it up so I can only assume it is the flare gun's fault and not mine. The Pathfinder update also overhauled the game's pickup items, adding neat new passive pickups if you’re bad and forget to use the active ones. (Like me.)

Coffee Talk is a wholesome game about a barista for orcs and elves
https://www.pcgamer.com/coffee-talk-is-a-wholesome-game-about-a-barista-for-orcs-and-elves/
Sometimes you want a game that's a warm bath, something that just washes over you and tells a simple story of an elf and a succubus who are very much in love. Or like a warm drink. Or both at the same time. So, here's Coffee Talk, a "coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator" where you serve as barista and also therapist to the needy people of a fantasy Seattle. That is to say, your customers are Orcs and Elves and Succubi and Mermaids, among other things. They come in, they ask for a coffee, you listen to some lo-fi, jazzy beats, you give out some advice. There's also a free demo on offer.

Dota Underlords gets a scrappy little monster and a release date
https://www.pcgamer.com/dota-underlords-gets-a-scrappy-little-monster-and-a-release-date/
Dota Underlords is set to release from Early Access on February 25, alongside its first battle pass, per an announcement from Valve. The update also adds the game's fourth Underlord, Enno, the agility counterpart to the three others. The Underlords team is now going to go dark until release, polishing and finishing its launch features. Speaking of launch features, we’ve got a whole one on Underlords that I wrote for you. I spoke with designers Adrian Finol, Brad Muir, and Lawrence Yang about what it's like to work at Valve, the development of the game, and how they learned to stop worrying and defeat Valve time.

Mike Laidlaw, creative director of the Dragon Age sequels, leaves Ubisoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/mike-laidlaw-creative-director-of-the-dragon-age-sequels-leaves-ubisoft/
In December 2018 Mike Laidlaw announced that he'd joined Ubisoft Quebec, the studio behind Assassin's Creed Odyssey and For Honor, currently working on the light-hearted open world game Gods and Monsters. Now, just over a year later, he's leaving, wishing them "all the best of luck with future ventures including the upcoming Gods and Monsters."

Anime action MMO Blue Protocol may get an English-language release
https://www.pcgamer.com/anime-action-mmo-blue-protocol-may-get-an-english-localization/
Bandai Namco has made a job listing that hints at a possible English release for action MMO Blue Protocol. The job posting, for an English language localization manager, likely means that Bandai Namco is planning on a release in the US, UK, and Australia. While there's no guarantee that this is the case, the job posting does ask for someone proficient in English to localize, including cultural changes, the UI, text, and cutscene voices. We've reached out to Bandai Namco for comment and will update if we get a response. (The job posting, here, is entirely in Japanese.)

Lead mutants across a dark fantasy wasteland in tactics RPG Urtuk: The Desolation
https://www.pcgamer.com/lead-mutants-across-a-dark-fantasy-wasteland-in-tactics-rpg-urtuk-the-desolation/
Urtuk: The Desolation has a solid intro: After being experimented on for ages, you break out of an evil underground laboratory and into the light of day. You then have to figure out what was done to you before it gets worse—or even kills you. It’s a tactical RPG with a grim art style, something like a cross between Battle Brothers and Darkest Dungeon. As you play through the game, expanding your party and defeating enemies, you uncover more of the story of the title character. It has some cool twists.

Thousands of old Flash games have been saved from obsolescence
https://www.pcgamer.com/thousands-of-old-flash-games-have-been-saved-from-obsolescence/
We've known since 2017 that Adobe intends to kill off Flash at the end of 2020. Few will likely miss it, but the announcement didn't bode well for the countless Flash games that proliferated online throughout the 2000s. Others have already acknowledged and moved to preserve this facet of gaming history, but there's now a new launcher that emulates over 36,000 ye olde games - all free and individually downloadable.

Warcraft 3 Reforged has the lowest user score for a game on Metacritic
https://www.pcgamer.com/warcraft-3-reforged-has-the-lowest-user-score-for-a-game-on-metacritic/
Warcraft 3 Reforged has the lowest user score of any game on Metacritic, currently sitting on a 0.5. While this dubious record was previously held by Day One: Garry's Incident, a number of drive-by 10 out of 10s have pushed it up into second place, inflating its user score from 0.4 to 0.7. For comparison's sake, even Metal Gear Survive has a user rating of 1.2.

Camelot Unchained developer announces a second online game before finishing the first
https://www.pcgamer.com/camelot-unchained-developer-announces-a-second-online-game-before-finishing-the-first/
Camelot Unchained, an MMO from the lead designer of Dark Age of Camelot, had a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2013, but it looks no closer to launching than it did six years ago. The first beta, initially planned for 2015, didn't appear until 2018 and there's still no word on a release date. In the meantime, City State Entertainment has been working on a second game, Colossus, due out by the end of the year. Oh dear.

PlatinumGames is teasing something on a new site
https://www.pcgamer.com/platinumgames-is-teasing-something-on-a-new-site/
Nier Automata developer PlatinumGames seems to be poised to announce something today. This morning, the Platinum Twitter account posted a link to a new site with the hashtag Platinum4. The mystery number is all we've got to go on, so far.
>> You can join Leynos' thread and make your prediction as to what this is for.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

Around the Network

Great to see Temtem at the top spot



Step right up come on in, feel the buzz in your veins, I'm like an chemical electrical right into your brain and I'm the one who killed the Radio, soon you'll all see

So pay up motherfuckers you belong to "V"

Retagging this thread.



The Tuesday news:

SALES & DEALS

Pandemic will no longer be free on the Epic Games Store next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/pandemic-will-no-longer-be-free-on-the-epic-game-store-next-week/
Last week Asmodee Digital confirmed three of its digital board games would hit the Epic Games Store on February 20: Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Pandemic. In the lead up to that date—between February 6 and 13—all three of those would be available to download for free, in keeping with Epic's habit of giving stuff away.
But that's no longer the case with Pandemic. In a statement, Epic Games has confirmed that Pandemic will no longer be free during that period. "We've shifted the release of Pandemic as a free game in our store schedule to a later date," the statement reads. "Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne will still be available as the free games of the week from February 6 - February 13."
Meanwhile, the Pandemic game page on the Epic Games Store has either been removed or is down, while the pages for Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne remain intact. Pandemic remains available on Steam.

Steam has two new deals, as well as a new round of weeklong deals:

At the Humble Store there are two new sales:

Fanatical has three new sales:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce 442.19 WHQL driver released, optimized for Apex Legends Season 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-442-19-whql-driver-released-optimized-for-apex-legends-season-4/
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 442.19 WHQL driver offers optimal performance in Apex Legends Season 4. This driver is also optimized for Zombie Army: Dead War 4 and the Metro Exodus: Sam’s Story DLC.
NVIDIA has also improved the Maximum Framerate setting. In case you weren’t aware of, this option allows you to set the max framerate a 3D application or game can render. With the latest Game Ready Driver, gamers can set the framerate limits as low as 20fps. They can also raise this setting as high as 1000fps.
It’s also worth noting that this driver improves overall support for Variable Rate Super Sampling (VRSS). VRSS improves image quality by applying super sampling selectively on the central region of a frame. With this new driver, gamers can enable the feature on the Global tab, automatically activating it in all supported games.
Furthermore, this driver adds support for three new G-SYNC Compatible gaming monitors. These new G-SYNC compatible monitors are: ASUS VG259QM, Dell AW2521HF, and LG 34GN850.
Last but not least, this driver addresses some bugs/issues with The Witcher 3, Doom 2016 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
>> Available from here.

MODS/EMULATORS

Playstation 4 emulator for the PC, GPCS4, boots and runs a commercial game for the first time
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/playstation-4-emulator-for-the-pc-gpcs4-boots-and-runs-a-commercial-game-for-the-first-time/
Alongside Orbital, GPCS4 is another Playstation 4 emulator that is currently under development for the PC. And while both of them are at a really early stage, GPCS4 can finally boot a commercial game. However, and before getting too excited, this emulator is far from being able to run any game at acceptable framerates.
According to its creator, GPCS4 can finally render a 2D image demo. Moreover, GPCS4 can boot the twin-stick shooter for Playstation 4, We Are Doomed. Not only that, but the emulator can… wait for it… actually run the game.
Now while We Are Doomed is not a demanding game, it’s incredible that GPCS4 can even run it. However, do note that We Are Doomed is not playable. While the emulator can go in-game, it’s not capable of fully running this game.

You can now play as Heather Mason & Eileen Galvin from Silent Hill in Resident Evil 2 Remake
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/you-can-now-play-as-heather-mason-eileen-galvin-from-silent-hill-in-resident-evil-2-remake/
Silent Hill is a franchise that has a special place in a lot of gamers’ hearts. And while Konami does not have any plans for a new game, modder Darkness Valtier decided to port some of its characters to Resident Evil 2 Remake.
Thanks to the following mods, players can replace Claire Redfield with either Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3 or Eileen Galvin from Silent Hill 4. Both of these characters have full facial animations, and appear to be working flawlessly. Thus, these mods will give you an idea of what a new Silent Hill game could look like. And yes, these are just simple character replacement mods. Still, I’m pretty sure that most Silent Hill fans will appreciate them.
In order to install these mods, you’ll need Fluffyquack’s Mod Manager. Moreover, we suggest using one mod at a time. According to the modder, there might be some compatibility issues when using multiple character mods.
>> Both mods are available from Nexus Mods: here's the Silent Hills 3 one and here you'll find the Silent Hills 4 one.

Half-Life: Google Translate Edition is full of wonderful gibberish
https://www.pcgamer.com/half-life-google-translate-edition-is-full-of-wonderful-gibberish/
Google Translate is the greatest poet of our age, capable of turning the most mundane sentences into evocative prose. At least once you've run the text through different languages a few times before translating it back into English. That's what modder SausageEggs did for all the dialogue and text in Half-Life. The result is magical.
Pretty much everything has been warped by Google. Warning signs, dialogue and and even the UI now displays very confusing gibberish. For the dialogue, SausageEggs re-recorded the audio with some help, so security guards and scientists will now happily spout complete nonsense at you.
The dodgy translations still retain some of their original meaning, so dialogue can start off making sense before it veers into the surreal, like this gem from the security guard at reception.

GAMING NEWS

Battlefield 5 Update 6.0 releases tomorrow, brings new content, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/battlefield-5-update-6-0-releases-tomorrow-brings-new-content-full-patch-notes-revealed/
DICE has announced that the first 2020 update for Battlefield 5 will come out tomorrow. According to the team, Update 6.0 adds new content to the game, and improves online server connectivity. Furthermore, DICE claimed that Update 6.2 will include a substantive revision on our current Weapon Balance.

DAEMON X MACHINA is coming to the PC on February 13th + PC System Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/daemon-x-machina-is-coming-to-the-pc-on-february-13th-pc-system-requirements/
XSEED Games has announced that Marvelous’ mecha game, DAEMON X MACHINA, will be coming to the PC on February 13th. Moreover, the publisher has revealed the game’s official PC system requirements.
>> Leynos has made a thread about it.

Platinum Games launches Kickstarter for The Wonderful 101: Remastered, funded in just mere hours
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/platinum-games-launches-kickstarter-for-the-wonderful-101-remastered-funded-in-just-mere-hours/
Platinum Games has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered. The Wonderful 101 is a “Unite Action” action-adventure that was directed by action game luminary Hideki Kamiya.

Blizzard is now offering automatic refunds for Warcraft 3 Reforged
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/blizzard-is-now-offering-automatic-refunds-for-warcraft-3-reforged/
(...) If you have purchased or pre-ordered the game, you can request a refund via this link. What’s really crucial to note here is that these are automatic, instant refunds. Now we are not saying that you should all refund the game. However, it’s at least great knowing that there is such an option. Furthermore, multiple users have already received a refund. So yeah, this is actually happening.

Here are the first ten minutes of gameplay from DOOM Eternal
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-the-first-ten-minutes-of-gameplay-from-doom-eternal/
IGN recently released a video showing the first ten minutes of the upcoming DOOM Eternal by id Software. The game has already been delayed once, because according to the developers they want to polish the game even more in order to deliver the best experience. We already informed you that DOOM Eternal with not have microtransactions. Also the game will not feature real-time ray tracing any time soon.

Atomic Heart is alive, new gameplay footage surfaces, is similar to Bioshock and Prey
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/atomic-heart-is-alive-new-gameplay-footage-surfaces-is-similar-to-bioshock-and-prey/
It’s been a while since we last heard from Mundfish and Atomic Heart, right? Well, good news everyone as Alexey Makarenko has visited Mundfish and has shared his opinion about the game itself, as well as its gameplay mechanics.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

Tuesday news, part two:

Ubisoft increases its investment in more free-to-play idle games
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-increases-its-investment-in-more-free-to-play-idle-games/
Ubisoft has announced the acquisition of Kolibri Games, a mobile game company that develops and publishes free-to-play idle games. Ubisoft acquired a 75 percent share in Kolibri January 31 with plans for its stake to increase to 100 percent over the next several years.

Senior Hearthstone developers have left to work on a secret new project at Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/senior-hearthstone-developers-have-left-to-on-a-secret-new-project-at-blizzard/
It looks like something new is happening at Blizzard, and it just might have to do with collectible cards. Late last week, Hearthstone principal game designer Mike Donais revealed during a Dog livestream (via Hearthpwn) that he's no longer working on Hearthstone.

Temtem bans 900 cheaters, promises to 'keep detecting and banning'
https://www.pcgamer.com/temtem-bans-900-cheaters-promises-to-keep-detecting-and-banning/
The creature-collecting MMO Temtem had a bit of a rough launch into Early Access, but it quickly got things sorted and, no equivocation here, has come up with something that's "even better than Pokémon." It's cute, it's colorful, and the Crema development team has made a point of being communicative with and responsive to its players.
>> Btw, here's a guide to get the, according to PCGamer, best Temtem in the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 will have 'around 75' Street Story sidequests, all of them custom made
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-will-have-around-75-street-story-sidequests-all-of-them-custom-made/
CD Projekt said last year that every quest in Cyberpunk 2077 will be "handcrafted," including Street Stories, a tier of side quest similar to Geralt's monster hunting missions in The Witcher 3 that players will pick up from fixers throughout Night City. They will come in varying types and sizes, and completing them will earn street cred that boost your reputation.
In a new interview with OnMSFT, CD Projekt's Krakow studio head John Mamais said there will be about 75 such Street Stories, and explained a little bit more about how they'll work in the overall context of the game.

Blizzard says Warcraft 3: Reforged cutscenes 'preserve the true spirit' of the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-says-warcraft-3-reforged-cutscenes-preserve-the-true-spirit-of-the-game/
Warcraft 3: Reforged has not quite lived up to expectations.(...)
Blizzard acknowledged that discontent today in an update posted to the Warcraft 3 forums in which addressed some—but not all—player complaints, and shared as little bit about its plans for the game's future. A patch expected later this week will fix a bug that's causing colors and shading in Classic mode to look different from the original game, for instance, as well as some portrait animation issues, audio bugs, and UI fixes. Online features including leaderboards and clans, which impact all Warcraft 3 players, will be addressed in a more distant update.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's Outback Relief Pack raises $1.6 million for Australian bushfire aid
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfares-outback-relief-pack-raises-dollar16-million-for-australian-bushfire-aid/
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's Outback Relief Pack has raised more than $1.6 million USD ($2.38 million AUD) in aid for those affected by the Australian fires.
The pack includes a variety of Australian-themed cosmetics, including an adorable Koala gun charm, emblems, a calling card, weapon skins and, of course, a hat. While the pack existed before Activision's charity drive as the Outback Pack, it was announced last month that the net proceeds of each sale of the newly-renamed Outback Relief Pack up to January 31, 2020 (including ones sold before the announcement was made) would be donated.

Serve up suspect sauce in free adventure game The Supper
https://www.pcgamer.com/serve-up-suspect-sauce-in-free-adventure-game-the-supper/
I'm sure you've heard tales of innkeepers, publicans, or demonic barbers who lure customers in, only to murder them. The Supper puts you in the role of the killer: an old lady on crutches who runs a tavern famous for its special sauce. Every item on the menu is slathered in the stuff, from the pigeon to the, er, human hand, its secret a guarded culinary mystery second only to the type of rat used in a service station sausage roll.

UKIE census reports that 31% of the UK games industry has depression or anxiety
https://www.pcgamer.com/ukie-census-reports-that-31-of-the-uk-games-industry-has-depression-or-anxiety/
The biggest census of UK games workers ever conducted has been carried out by the British games industry trade association UKIE, highlighting some of the demographics, inequalities and struggles of the UK games industry.
3,208 people working within the UK games industry responded to the census, including developers, artists, musicians and those working behind the scenes in areas such as business management, IT and marketing. It spanned everyone from CEOs to freelance workers, but it didn't include the games media industries, meaning press and influencers were not involved.
>> Only 31%, I find it low?

King's Bounty 2's first dev diary covers roleplaying, tactical combat and morality
https://www.pcgamer.com/kings-bounty-2s-first-dev-diary-covers-roleplaying-tactical-combat-and-morality/
King's Bounty is a series with a long history and significant influence over the tactical RPG genre. It was, after all, the gameplay inspiration behind Heroes of Might and Magic. Despite that, the series has come and gone many times over the 30 years since its debut, and it's never received a full, numbered sequel.
That finally changed at last year's Gamecom, as 1C Company announced it was developing King's Bounty 2, and now we've received our first in-depth look at the game in the form of a developer diary.

Fallout 76 coming to Steam in April, with big human NPC expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-coming-to-steam-in-april-with-big-human-npc-expansion/
The free expansion that will bring human NPCs to Fallout 76 has a new launch date. Fallout 76 Wastelanders will be coming to PC on April 7.
And, with the Wastelanders launch, Fallout 76 will finally be coming to Steam as well, on the very same day. A new trailer awaits you above, if you haven't already clicked it. You already clicked it, didn't you? That's fine. I'd have done the same thing.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

The news:

SALES & DEALS

There's a big sale on Sims expansion packs for its 20th anniversary
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-a-big-sale-on-sims-expansion-packs-for-its-20th-anniversary/
If you haven't played The Sims in a while, or haven't upgraded to Sims 4, there's no better time to do that than right now. The Sims 20th birthday celebrations are still going strong, and you can pick up The Sims 4—and certain expansion, game, and stuff packs—for up to 85 percent off. You'll save the most on the base game, as it's currently $5.99, but you're getting the best deals on expansion packs. (...) Here's the sale, which ends on February 6.

GOG's Midweek Sale is full of puzzle and mystery games, up to 90% off for the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200205_midweek_sale

Steam has five new deals, including the Midweek Madness deals:

There's a new Humble Bundle with Train Simulator that will last the next 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/train-simulator

And Fanatical has four new sales:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD's latest GPU driver cleans up HDR games and is tuned for Zombie Army 4
https://www.pcgamer.com/amds-latest-gpu-driver-cleans-up-hdr-games-and-is-tuned-for-zombie-army-4/
Zombie Army 4: Dead War is out today, and right one cue, both AMD and Nvidia have released updated GPU drivers optimized for the game. I wrote about Nvidia's latest GPU driver yesterday; now I'll go over AMD's newest release.
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.2.1 driver package (just 20.2.1 from here on out) is mainly focused on bringing optimizations for Zombie Army 4 to AMD's legion of Radeon graphics cards. Beyond that, there's another round of bug fixes.
If you own a Radeon RX 5000 series graphics card (5500, 5600 XT, 5700, or 5700 XT), the 20.2.1 driver addresses an issue in "some DirectX 12 API games" that makes HDR content become overly dark or overly bright. AMD did not say which specific games this happens in, but if you're playing games in HDR, it'd be a good idea to jump on this driver to see if things look better.
>> Available from here.

MODS/EMULATORS

-empty-

GAMING NEWS

Dark sci-fi action RPG, Hellpoint, releases on April 16th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-sci-fi-action-rpg-hellpoint-releases-on-april-16th/
Cradle Games and publisher tinyBuild have announced that the Kickstarter-backed RPG Hellpoint will release on April 16th. Hellpoint is a dark sci-fi action RPG that takes place on Irid Novo. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has also released a new trailer that you can find below.

New trailer for SUCCUBUS showcases the Amazon enemy
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-trailer-for-succubus-showcases-the-amazon-enemy/
Madmind Studio has released a new trailer for the Agony spin-off game, SUCCUBUS. This new trailer showcases a new enemy that players will encounter, Amazon.

DAEMON X MACHINA will support mouse and keyboard, 4K resolutions and 200fps
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/daemon-x-machina-will-support-mouse-and-keyboard-4k-resolutions-and-200fps/
DAEMON X MACHINA is a new mecha game that is coming to Steam on February 13th. The game originally released exclusively on Nintendo Switch, and XSEED Games has revealed some additional details about the PC version.

NASCENCE – ANNA’S SONGS is a new adventure game for next-gen systems, first screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nascence-annas-songs-is-a-new-adventure-game-for-next-gen-systems-first-screenshots/
Dreampainters has announced a new first-person, story-driven puzzle adventure game for the PC and next gen systems. This new title is called NASCENCE – ANNA’S SONGS, and below you can find its first screenshots.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.